It was popularized by the Oriental Brothers and later by Kabaka Guitar Band.
[2] It was pioneered by Oliver De Coque and Prince Nico Mbarga.
Ikwokirikwo was much different from the somber sound of the Igbo highlife music which dominated the era before and presided during the war.
[4] In the post-civil war period in Nigeria, Makossa and Soukous music from East and Central Africa were incorporated into Igbo Highlife as a social response to the influx of new music in the civil and post-civil war period in Nigeria (Emielu 2009).
They introduced the term in their 1975 album in the track ‘Ikenga in Africa’ in a Sebene-like chant essentially giving the style of music its name.